a field (as flat) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
come
אֵתָ֕יוּ'e.Ta.yu
H857
to arrive · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
devour
לֶאֱכֹ֥לle.'e.Khol
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
beasts
חַיְת֖וֹchay.To
H2416
alive · noun, common feminine singular construct
forest
בַּיָּֽעַרbai.Ya.'ar
H3293
a copse of bushes · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 12:9 Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to d…
Deuteronomy 28:26 And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.
Isaiah 18:6 They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all t…
Ezekiel 29:5 And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not…
Ezekiel 39:17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and co…
Revelation 19:17-18 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and ga…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 56:9–end
From words of comfort the prophet here, by a very sudden change of his style, passes to words of reproof and conviction, and goes on in that strain, for the most part, in the three following chapters; and therefore some here begin a new sermon. He had assured the people that in due time God would deliver them out of captivity, which was designed for the comfort of those that should live when God would do this. Now here he shows what their sins and provocations were, for which God would send them into captivity, and this was designed for the conviction of those that lived in his own time, nearly a hundred years before the captivity, who were now filling up the measure of the nation's sin, and…
beasts--Gentile idolatrous nations hostile to the Jews, summoned by God to chastise them (Jer 12:7-9; Jer 50:17; Eze 34:5): the Chaldeans and subsequently the Romans. The mention of the "outcasts of Israel" (Isa 56:8) brings in view the outcasting, caused by the sins of their rulers (Isa 56:10-12).
to devour--namely, Israel.
Adam Clarke on Isaiah 56:9
All ye beasts of the field - Here manifestly begins a new section. The prophet in the foregoing chapters, having comforted the faithful Jews with many great promises of God's favor to be extended to them, in the restoration of their ruined state, and in the enlargement of his Church by the admission of the Gentiles; here on a sudden makes a transition to the more disagreeable part of the prospect, and to a sharp reproof of the wicked and unbelievers; and especially of the negligent and faithless governors and teachers, of the idolaters and hypocrites, who would still draw down his judgments upon the nation. Probably having in view the destruction of their city and polity by the Chaldeans, an…
All ye beasts of the field, come to devour,.... Which may be understood either literally of savage beasts being called to devour the slain, signifying a great slaughter that should be made, like that in Revelation 19:17 to which the fowls of the heaven are invited, as to a supper; and so Kimchi interprets it of such creatures being called to feed upon the carcasses in the camp of Gog and Magog, agreeably to Ezekiel 39:17, but it seems better to understand it figuratively of people and nations, comparable to the beasts of the field for their strength, cruelty, and voraciousness. The Targum of the whole is,
"all the kings of the people that shall be gathered to oppress thee, O Jerusalem, shal…
The Church Fathers
We have often seen the mass of the other nations called "the woodlands." These are the beasts of God's calling worthy to be called up due to their fear. Aquila has instead, "all the beasts," "all his living beings," and then, the second time, "all his living things." Do they belong to someone or to God? For he does not call them simply "beasts" but "his." Isaiah made mention of the nations of other tribes and the forest of beasts, and he saw in the Spirit that these would obey the call; yet so many of the Jews were persistent in unbelief.
Having made these promises to foreigners and eunuchs, he predicts to the Jews the last siege that would be made by the Romans.… The Roman army was gathered from diverse nations, because they were at that time the masters of all Europe and had conquered the larger part of Asia. This is why the prophetic text says, "Come to devour, all you beasts of the forest." Some, however, have related these words to Gog and Magog, without observing the fact that the latter were consumed in the mountains of Judea under the effect of punishment coming from God, whereas those who are now summoned are being urged to devour other people.
"The beasts of the forest" means the nations. For a forest denotes the group of nations of different branches that he invites to the spiritual banquet. According to Aquila, he does not call them simply wild beasts, but "his wild beasts." Why "his"? Why "God's"? Because, captured by the devil, they became wild beasts under his tyranny and while alive they were hardly human. Yet God calls these as his own to his spiritual banquet, to eat the bread of life and to rejoice.… For although they were away from him for a long time, they were able through faith to come close to him and to share in the bread that strengthens the heart of humankind.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
B · Found in: Forests — Found in: Forests
Forests · Infested by wild beasts — Infested by wild beasts
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
All ye beasts of the field. This prediction appears to be at variance with what goes before; for what the Prophet has hitherto said was full of the most delightful consolation, but now he appears to threaten fiercely, and to predict frightful ruin. These statements might indeed appear to be contradictory; but, after having comforted believers, it ought not to be thought inconsistent if he forewarn them of a future calamity that they might not lose courage when they saw everything near destruction, and that necessity might likewise prompt them to betake themselves more warmly and earnestly to the grace of God. There is also another reason, that hypocrites abuse the promises of God and hold th…
It is a question whether Isa 56:9 forms the commencement of a fresh prophecy, or merely the second half of the prophecy contained in Isa 56:1-8. We decide, for our part, in favour of the former. If Isa 56:9. formed an antithetical second half to the promising first half in Isa 56:1-8, we should expect to find the prophets and leaders of Israel, whose licentiousness and want of principle are here so severely condemned, threatened with destruction in the heathen land, whilst true proselytes and even eunuchs were brought to the holy mountain. But we meet with this antithesis for the first time in Isa 57:13, where we evidently find ourselves in the midst of another prophetic address. And where c…
This is a reflection on the prevalence of evil among God’s people; they were greedy (56:9-12), hostile to the righteous (57:1-2), and idolatrous (57:3-13).
56:9 Wild animals are here a metaphor for the hostile nations surrounding Judah.
Rashi on Isaiah 56:9
All the beasts of the field All the proselytes of the heathens ([Mss. and K’li Paz:] All the nations) come and draw near to Me, and you shall devour all the beasts in the forest, the mighty of the heathens ([Mss. and K’li Paz:] the mighty of the nations) who hardened their heart and refrained from converting.
the beasts of the field [The beast of the field is not as strong as the beast of the forest.] The beast of the field is weaker and of weaker strength than the beast of the forest. Since he stated, “I will yet gather others to him,” he stated this verse.
